Prologue:
I have taught my daughter well. She has the makings of a Black widow. I too, am such, and I have seen things in my Tangled Web, that I heeded without hesitation. I know what ever I teach my girl, she will need in the future. I pray to the darkness that my children will come out safe and whole. I know there is something terrible being held in the future. It disturbs me that I have not found myself in my Tangled Webs, nor have I seen my husband. However, I suppose it is not in a Black widow's power to see her own fate.
My Daughter will find a way to make it through whatever is harboring in the distance, and she will fight back with every ounce that she is. From the day she was born, I knew she would be powerful. I could sense her abilities even from within the womb. At the moment she was old enough to learn, I taught her the Craft of the Black Widow, and how to take care of herself, with her powers. I also taught her how to suppress her psychic scent, so she would seem nothing more than a sapphire-jeweled witch.
May the Darkness be merciful to her, and aid her well.
Entry 27: 11:23 pm, Spring of the 18th year of Lady Macaeiles
The day started off well enough. But it quickly warped. The men who have shown up within the past month were acting strangely. They looked funny whenever they looked towards my cousin or me or my mother, or Aunt. Some of the men are foreign. One can tell because they don't have any of the common traits of the people of my territory, and they hold themselves differently. They were acting more agitated today. It was most peculiar. All I know is that the man who claims to be my father's relative is the most unnerving. He frightens me. I haven't seen his jewel, but I can tell by his psychic scent that he wears something dark. I pray the morning will bring with its light, peace.
Chapter 1: Terrielle
The sun rose, just peeking over the mountains that loomed behind the Fortress known as the Akryln. The light bathed the land; the fields, the forests, and the waters. It was a warm and welcoming day, something that seemed to prove to be a good fortune. As the sun became higher in the sky, the light it gave out softened from a brilliant red to a luminescent yellow, to white. The red of the barely risen sun crept up the window sill, and into the room, cascading upon the floor of the east tower of the Akryln. Red. An old saying among sailors spoke true of what the significance of the rising red meant. The Black widows called it Blood on the moon. However it was referred to, it wasn't a good sign.
The room in the East tower had a bed, and a chest and a closet, and whatever furniture the occupant deemed necessary. The bed's covers were pulled out in many directions, a good portion of a comforter sprawled on the floor. A chair was over-turned. The chamber door was swinging open only a crack, from a slight draft.
The sun's light slowly moved from the back wall of that tower, to the floor to the doorway, and seeped past the crack of the open door, and into the corridor. The large corridor in the East tower of the Akryln, when its contents were illuminated, was not much different from the red light that bathed the walls.
Much like the blood.
The blood smattered on the walls, and wiped across the floor. The blood from the servants who worked the corridor. Blood of the family who ruled the Territory.
Deep within the fortress, below the massacred scene, there was bitter laughter heard. It was deep, and throaty; someone who was not on the receiving end of a lash.
The whistle of a whip sang for a moment, before a snap echoed throughout the basement of the Fortress.
In the dark, and dulled light of the bottom dungeon, a white-haired man stood. He wasn't a small, frail, fool. He was a very burly, capable male, who knew what he was doing and what he wanted. On the wall opposite him, forced upright by the chains, and the ropes, hung the Queen. Her sapphire jewel; hung loosely around her neck, didn't seem to have any strength in it. It seemed lifeless.
And she knew it. She had shattered her Jewel in the attempt to keep the men from taking over. Most of her guards men had been replaced by frauds, and spies. They locked the Fortress so no one could escape, and no one could enter. They came in the dead of night. First with her son, Adonias, they came and took him. She heard him scream when they grabbed him, and hauled him out of his room. And before she could do anything to help what was left of her family, the guards broke down her chamber door, and threw up shields around them immediately.
In the hall of the east tower, she watched her husband be slain by the white-haired man. Four servants died before her, caught in the energy assault between her and the man.
She lost control at the point of her husband's death, and her powers just went everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
It had been a long, hard night, indeed. They all fought to keep the enemy at bay, throughout the night. In the end, however, it proved futile, and they were over-taken, and held prisoner in the basement of their own fortress.
It had been a night of whiplashes, and abuse beyond anything she had ever known. She feared how her children were being handled. Her daughter... No. She mustn't think of what could happen to her daughter. Every now and then she would hear a cry and scream that followed the strike of a whip.
Breathing hard, she raised her head to face her tormentor.
"Why?" she rasped, trying to put edge in her voice. He only looked at her maliciously, and stroked the tail of his whip. "Lady," he scoffed, "I am a man with ambition. You and your family stood in the way."
She scowled at him as he turned, finished with his torture. Her clothes were torn and bloody. Her brown hair had fallen out, and was tangled and crusty with blood. Her skin was bruised, and rubbed raw by the metal cuffs that pulled her to the wall.
The man stopped a few paces later, and turned his head slightly to look back at her. "Oh, and one more thing." he drawled as he pulled out a knife. It was long, but light. The blade gleamed in the dulled light, and she was only able to see the glinted silver once before everything went black.